FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device for connecting a spring to a band-like or cable-like transmission means.
Such connections are required, e.g. in domestic appliances with a door which can be pivoted around a horizontal spindle and is mounted on a housing, for the purpose of compensating the weight of the door in order to facilitate the handling, in particular the closure, of the door for the user. In this case, the weight is compensated by a spring, usually a tension spring, which is fastened on a housing and is connected to the door directly or by transmission means.
German Utility Model 74 32 124 discloses such a device for compensating the weight of a domestic-dishwasher door which is located at the front of the dishwasher, can be pivoted around a horizontal spindle, is mounted on a housing and is connected, by means of a band-like or cable-like transmission means, to a tension spring fastened on the housing, in the case of which device the transmission means is fitted, in a manner which is not described, in an eyelet of the spring which has been produced by bending up the last winding of said spring.
It has been shown, in practice, that the springs, which are subjected to very high stressing for the purpose of weight compensation in such a device, break, particularly at the eyelets produced by bending up the last winding of the spring, after a comparatively small number of load changes, that is to say door-opening movements. Furthermore, the insertion of the ends of the transmission means is time-consuming and thus expensive, and it is necessary to provide a fastening device on the transmission means, usually an eyelet, which constitutes a further operation and produces a further location which is at risk of fracture in a spring/transmission means connection.